What's Changing In Mobile? Types of Mobile Marketing Tips

Mobile apps, mobile phones, mobile screens, mobile and more mobile. The word mobile is a hot word in 2014 and you are probably hearing or seeing it everywhere. What's changing in mobile this year? Well, you must read on.

1.4 Billion
This is the number of smartphones in use in 2013. That is approximately 1 in 7 people worldwide.

57% 
This is the percent of users who won't recommend companies with a poor mobile site. You read that right, they WON'T recommend business your way if your website is not optimized or you have a weak mobile marketing strategy.

1in4
That is how many online searches that are conducted on mobile devices. This means 25% of searches are coming from mobile. Again, this is average. We are working with clients and seeing numbers closer to 40-50% of searches coming from mobile.

57,293 hours
The average American spends almost 2 hours per day on a mobile device which adds up to 57,293 hours over a lifetime. Two whole hours every single day staring at their mobile smartphone.

$400 Billion
By 2015, it is expected that mobile marketing in the U.S. will generate $400 billion compared to $139 billion in 2012.

Just looking at some of the numbers above,  you get the picture how important mobile marketing is. We now wanted to break down some different types of mobile marketing for you during this changing mobile environment. As a business owner, you realize there are millions of ways you can possibly do marketing for your business but we are shedding light on the mobile marketing game and some ways to begin.

Mobile Apps
You can definitely get a mobile app for your business and begin promoting that. About 45% of US mobile marketing campaigns employ app downloads. At Grand Apps, we strictly develop for businesses and pack our app with useful features that will drive traffic and help your business out with an app. Even a mobile app has many ways to begin your mobile marketing campaign, but just getting an app is a great start.

Mobile Image Ads
You can also display ads and begin running mobile ads, you know like those annoying little pop ups you get while trying to exercise listening to your favorite Pandora station.

QR Codes
QR codes are a baby step into mobile marketing getting people engaged with their smart device and your business. You can post QR code specials, redirects and much more. QR codes, in our opinion are awesome, but highly underused in the US. Time will only tell if they begin to trend as more people purchase smartphones.

Mobile Website
We really didn't want to put this on here, because this should be a must. This is equivalent to making sure your pants are on before leaving the house. Mobile websites are critical with over 25% of searches coming from smart devices.

Summary...

Well, pretty much mobile is changing the marketing game. People are spending massive amounts of time on mobile and the numbers are changing to see even bigger increases. Having some type of mobile strategy in the future years is critical can we recommend you begin planning in 2014 if you have not already.

Mobile is not the future, it's the now.

What Makes a Good App for my Business?

There is no doubt that every business needs some type of mobile strategy going into 2014. This post is for businesses deciding to go with a mobile app strategy. We wanted to share with you what makes a good app for your business. 

Functionality

The app must be functional or have a main purpose for your business. For restaurants, mobile ordering is a very functional way for customers to order from you and boost your profits. Service industries like Hair Salons, Doctors Offices, Personal Trainers, etc..can really benefit from Mobile Reservations we offer to client. App users can book appointments with you and help boost your revenue. Your business app should have some feature that is very functional to your customers. 

Simplicity 

Simplicity is key for your app. Screens come in all shapes and sizes, but it can be agreed that screens are typically smaller than desktops so your app has little room to work with. You want to make sure you keep it simple & to the point so you don't confuse app users. Above you can see the Brann's app is simple with the buttons on the left, a beautiful logo and delicious looking pictures. Users can navigate easy and it is simple to use. 

ROI

When building an app for your business it is important to think about tracking return on your investment. Many different app companies offer different things, but at Grand Apps we pride yourself in many useful features that show ROI. 

-App Analytics - See how many people are clicking through your app and what pages they are going too. Think about Google Analytics, but for your app. Not every app company offers this, but we do!

-Mobile Commerce - Our clients using Mobile Commerce see great returns selling products, services and other types of items through our platform. Billions are being spent through mobile devices in shopping which is why we offer our clients a chance to take a slice of that pie. 

-Scheduling - If you schedule customers & clients, you can close sales & increase revenue. This is why we offer our clients the mobile scheduling feature in their app for their business.

-And more - We can't get into all of the features that will benefit your app. These are just a few but we have many more. 

Incentives 

Your app should have some type of incentive to download it. We have many different offer / coupon programs for our mobile apps which many of our clients take advantage of. You want to show your customer the benefits of downloading the app and offer them some type of incentive. Tons of business owners use print ads, radio, television and all other forms of offers for their business. Same rule applies for your mobile app. Offer an incentive & pile up the total number of downloads. 

Conclusion

A mobile app is a great way to communicate with your customer and increase revenue. Your businesses mobile app is an investment and you want to see great returns on your investments so following these simple steps will allow you to see the best possible return you can get! As always, if you found this useful...give us a +1 just below. Thanks for the read and we will talk to you soon. 

Mobile VS PC Online Searches 2014

Grand Apps is obviously a firm believer in the mobile revolution that is sweeping the world by storm with increasing mobile searches from consumers everywhere. Some of you may also realize that mobile is a huge part of internet traffic now and having a mobile strategy in place will be key in 2014.

For everyone out there that understand the importance of mobile, we wanted to point out a quick statistic that stood out to us after reviewing a clients Google Analytics over the past two months. We're working closely with a local Grand Rapids, MI company and helping their online marketing efforts and when we came across this, we knew we had to share.

Searches / Device Category

Overall, their searches are increasing and we are happy about that...but what was really impressive were the numbers in mobile and tablet. If you notice, desktop barely scrapped 20% increase whereas mobile and tablet exceeded 40% increased searches. 

A Real Company...A Real Case Study

The purpose to bring this to you today is to show you that this is a real report from Google Analytics from a real client. These are not some statistics that are thrown around by large data processing companies. These are actual figures from a real local client and we wanted to share with you this huge increase in mobile traffic to show you that it is important to have your business mobile. 

When we showed our client this statistics they said "Glad we have a mobile website" and also informed us that "I hate when a website does not fit my phone, it drives me crazy!". 

This just proves that mobile searches are increasing & people get frustrated when websites are not optimized. Please share this information to fellow businesses to show them that mobile is increasing and they should be prepared. 

As always, if you found this information useful, simply Google +1 Grand Apps. Thank you for reading today. Until next time.